Many retired teachers may feel thankful they don’t do their job in the social media age. It’s not just today’s students who are hectored online, teachers get bullied too.

Now a Melbourne, Australia school, has stepped up to protect its staff. The primary school write a legal letter to parents asking them formally to stop abusing teachers on social media forums.

Australia’s leading cybersafety expert, Susan McLean, told The Herald Sun, that the language used by the parents was obscene and defamatory.

McLean said such behaviour was becoming increasingly common. Some parents, she said, have set up special Facebook pages and websites to publicly target certain teachers.

Other education commentators have pointed that parents are become fond of saying things online rather than meeting teachers face-to-face. Many parents seem unaware that defamation charges also apply to online posts.

Meanwhile, in Sydney, another school head has made the papers for opining that laptops shouldn’t necessarily be found in school classrooms. Instead, said John Vallance, the devices may distract students from their learning outcomes. At the exclusive Sydney
Grammar School, said Vallance, all students must submit handwritten assignments until the end of Grade 10.

“The history of technology in education too often has been a history of finding improved means to unimproved ends,” Vallance said.